If you’re even slightly cognizant of the current state of the world, you probably understand that we are living in a viral age. Thanks to social media, we know who broke up with who in Hollywood faster than they themselves can figure it out. Due to hashtags, retweets and 140 characters, we get out information more timely and concisely than ever before. The downside? Most of it can’t exactly be dubbed hard-hitting.
Just scan your Facebook newsfeed. I’m no statistician, but I’m willing to assume that you can barely scroll an inch without breaking headlines like “25,000 Ways to Be Happy in Your 20s” or “800 Farm Animals that Look Like Miley Cyrus” bombarding your line of vision. I’ll admit that I’ve curiously clicked on more than a couple of these eye-catching links. Hell, I’ll LOL at an uncomfortable series of awkward family pictures as much as the next tech-savvy twenty-something. There’s no denying that as a form of digital entertainment, this plushy content gets the job done: simple to digest, strikingly uncanny and photographically humorous. There are just the blend of ingredients that we all need when attempting go into autopilot and ease the sting of an uncurved calculus final. While I applaud the writers who believe that they have unveiled the secrets to contentment via drinking a cup of tea, forgetting about boys and “buying the shoes”, one thing is clear: I haven’t learned a thing about Obamacare from them.
The problem is not that popular, mass consumption sites like Buzzfeed, Thought Catalog and Elite Daily exist. The issue rather, is whether they are becoming the millennial definition of news. In a recent poll conducted by Youth Pulse, it was reported that 66% of Generation Y-ers don’t trust the news and in a less than shocking turn of events, social media platforms are the go-to primary news source for about 68%. There is more than enough evidence to suggest that we prefer to get our national coverage in tweets, statuses and pins far more than from TV, news websites or even word of mouth. But is it actually news? And furthermore, do we even care about or have the attention spans to digest a headline that doesn’t parade an absurd list of bizarre pictorials?
It’s no wonder to me why our generation isn’t exactly confident in televised news programming. Our parents had Walter Cronkite. We have Gulliana Rancic. They had honest networks centralized on upright, American ideals and creating an informed public, while we have politically polarized media moguls who are focused on televising glamorized scandal and appeasing advertisers in order to make a pretty penny. I’m not suggesting that you need to eat up whatever bullshit is spewing out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth. I’m not suggesting that you have to agree or disagree with any news source for that matter. I do, however, believe that becoming educated about fiscal policy or immigration laws will help you understand the world in a way that “100 Puppies That Are Cuter Than Ryan Gosling” will not. I hate to break it to you, but your stance as pro or anti “twerk” probably isn’t going to help you in understanding any major political platforms. Though a link explaining the government shutdown might.
In the near future, Buzzfeed could be the answer to all of our uninformed problems. Last May, the culture vulture publication announced plans to extend its video operations through a news-driven partnership with CNN. Provisions are aimed at creating news and entertainment video content on a “CNN Buzzfeed” YouTube channel and using CNN’s video footage to create easily digestible content that CNNpressroom.com describes as “mash-up news videos tailored for the social web”. The initiative aims to use Buzzfeed’s current, signature voice and CNN’s journalistic chops in order to give birth to the new wave of story consumption.
Hopefully, and in my opinion, expectedly, this innovative collaboration will serve as the latest and greatest news outlet for the digital age. But for now, I am only able to associate the Buzzfeed logo with the “LOL”, “OMG”, and “WTF” icons that preface its insubstantial content. If such sites really do speak to our generation, as least in terms of national and global awareness, then we might be better off listening to someone else.
Photo courtesy of: TheWhiteHouseArchives
